Means for spacing and forming buttonholes and other stitchings in articles of clothing



2,194,794 HEB March 26, 1940. G, EssoP' AND FORMING BUTTONHOLES AND 0TMEANS FOR SPACING STITCHINGS IN ARTICLES 0F CLOTHING Filed larch 19,1938 INVENTOR.

Patented Mar. 26, 1940 UiTED 1 STAT-ES PATENT; OFFICE,

MEANS, FOR sP oI o AND FoRMING BUT- TONHOLES AND OTHER STITCHINGS INARTICLES F CLOTHI G George Jessop, lngle Application March 19,

Nook, Gomersal, near Leeds, England 1938, Serial No. 196,884

In' Great Britain March 24, 1937 3 Claims.

ing. Itis, however,.,equally applicable tov the sewing on of spacedbuttons, bar tackings of sewn buttonholes and other like spacedstitchings. The primary object of the present invencate the position foreach buttonhole, button or other stitchings, but also to allow for theautomatic making or stitching ofa plurality of separate spacedstitchings along, the edge of the garment after the ,machineha's beenset.

The present invention comprises in combination withanautomatic'buttonhole' sewing maehine'of known type in which the work isheld stationary and the relative movement of the parts to sew'about thebuttonhole is produced by travel of the stitch frame including thesewinghead of themachine as described for instance in United States PatentsNos. 488,028,,494280, 655,637 and 713,764, mechanism attachable to saidmachine comprising means forvholding the work and automatically spacingat one operation the position and number of stitchings necessary to fillup an allotted space, and means for automatically stitching successivelya plurality of separate stitchings at a pre-determined distance apart atone operation of the machine, i. e., after the machine is once.startedand before it is automatilly stopp i One embodiment. of thisinvention comprises a matic sewing machine of'the Reece type such as isdescribed in United States Patents Nos. 488,028,'494,280, 655,637 and713,764, the said gauge consisting of a plurality of indicating fin-'gersor barsheld movably parallel and mecha nism for equally andautomatically spacing them apart, meanslfor carrying the gauge in aslidable manner transversely in relationto the head of l tion is notonly to instantlyand accurately indigauge adapted to be held in relationto an autothe edge of the garment'to be operated upon be- '7 describedmaking reference moths :accompanying drawing in which is shownanembodimentof this invention applicable to an'automatic buttonholesewing machine of the reciprocating head type in which the needle bar.is moved along the length of the buttonhole whilst the garment is heldstationary 'during the stitching, as: described,

for instance, in the patent specificationof 'United one construc- Nos.488,028, $94,280, 655,637 and Fig. 2 is a view in sec-tionlooking inthe-direction of the arrow, on line A-A of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a similar view in; sectionon line Of Fig.1. "I

Fig. 4.15 an enlarged detail view in pan, 3 Throughout the views similarparts are desig-q cating fingers I, 2, 3 4, -5 and 5, held movablyparallel by links I. The links 1 are; pivoted together at '8 in thecentre of their, length andat their ends, withthe exception of the end.links. Theextremities ofthe links 1' arealso pivoted to the bars. l-6 atsand-ea, the pivots of the latter working inslots in said: bars, thewholear rangement constituting a lazy tongs mechanism, so that on movingthe barsfea'chbar will be moved equally apart from its adjacent one.

A gauge so constituted is carried in a'slidable manner on a pair ofhorizontally and parallelly arranged rods Ill fixed parallel with thefront edge and transversely, in respect of the oscillating head I l of'asewing'machine of the Reece, type, above referred to, by meansof eyebolts or sleeves 9b carriedon the underside on the bars I--B. 5 The rodsIt, are carried in angular relation to the table of the sewing machineby end frames or brackets l2 adapted to be attached to the edge of atable carrying the sewing machine, so

that the rear edges of the bars l-B will beadjacent to the surface ofthe usual table, Ha of the machine, but clear of thevneedle thereof.

The gauge is provided with clamping means adapted .to position andretain the edge of the garment to be operated :upon at about theends' ofits length and to lock the bars of the gauge in position afteradjustment," for which purpose I la. Jaws or stops ii and it to receiveand position the edge of a vest l9, for instance-shown in dot and dashlines in Fig. 1are pivoted at Na and 811- to the plates l5 and It sothat on moving the jaws on their pivots, the edge of the vest l9 can beclamped between them and the underside of the plates i5 and 15.

Each clamp is operated separately, the jaws 58 (see Figs. 1 and 3) bymeans of a pivoted lever 23 connected to the clamp is by a rod 29. Theone end of the rod 2| is pivoted eccentrically to the lever 28 and itsother end is pivoted at Zia to the clamp l8 at a distance from its pivotli'fft. The rod 2i may be made adjustable length in any convenientmanner, the arrangement is such that when the lever 23 is in theclamping position -as shown in Fig. 3it will remain in such positionuntil rocked in an opposite direction.

The other clamping means 55, H (see Figs. 1 and 2) is similarly arrangedbut also serves to lock the bars l-3 in position after adjustment. Inorder to adjust or space the bars i-15 apart-the end bar 6 beingtemporarily fixed as will be presently desoribedthe opposite end bar lis made in one with or furnished with a handle 22, and inorder to limitthe movements of the bars and to provide a means for locking them inposition after adjustment, a rod. is anchored by its one end at 23a tothe top of the bar 6, and then passes freely through an eye 23b carriedby the bar 5, and a guide eye 23c carried by the bar 2. Adjustable stops2d are adapted to be fixed on the rod 23 for limiting the opening andclosing movements of the bars l-E. The bars are locked in position afteradjustment by a cam shaped lever 25 adjacent to the eye 23c and throughwhich the rod 23 passes, the said lever 25 being pivoted at its free endto a jointed rod 28 which connects the rocking jaws I! with a pivotedlever 2'? which functions as in the first described clamping means. Therod 25 is articulated at 23a and provided with a universally jointedguide link 26b.

The bars l--6 when in their locked position so as to have no relativemotion in respect of each other, are free to slide as a single carriageon the fixed supporting rods ill under the influence of a tension spring28 acting between an eye bolt to on one of the pivots B of the links 1and the adjacent end frame l2.

The intermittent movement of the carriage is controlled under theinfluence of the spring 28 and the stopping of the sewing machine isefiected after the final sewing is effected by mechanism actuated fromthe stop motion of the sewing machine.

In the sewing machine to which this invention is applied the machine isstarted by momentarily depressing a starting lever 29 and thereciprocating head ll after a stitching is completed automaticallyactuates the stop gear of the machine. The motion of the machine isutilized to actuate the intermittent motion of the carriage in anyconvenient manner. One such way is as follows:

The head ll of the machine is furnished with an arm lib through whichpasses a rod 35. Motion is imparted to the rod 35 in one direction by anadjustable stop 35a and in the opposite direc tion by anotheradjustablestop 35b carried on the rod 35 and engaging with the arm H1).

The front ends of each bar or finger l--6, see more particularly Fig. 4,are furnished with a pair of teeth 39, 3| on opposite sides as shown. Alever 32 is pivoted at 32a to a fixed bar [2a connecting the end frames52 together. The lever 32 is furnished with teeth 32b and 320 adapted toalternately engage with the teeth 30 and 3| in the manner of the palletof an escapement. The tooth 320 is in the form of a spring controlledpivoted pawl made conveniently by pivoting a slotted lever on the pivotfurnished on its outer end witha tooth 32c and having its inner endcontrolled by a compression spring 33a. Stops 332) on the lever 32 areprovided to limit the angular movement of the lever 33 with respect tothe lever 32. The free end of the lever 32 at 34 is connected to the rod35, the arrangement being such that as the rod 35 is reciprocated, theteeth 32b and 320 of the pallet 32 will alternately engage with theteeth 30 and 3i and so allow the oarriageunder the influence of thespring 2B to be moved intermittently after each stitching is completed.

In place of the connecting rod 35, the well known Bowden wire mechanismcomprising a flexible inextensible member in combination with a flexibleincompressible member may be em.- ployed to transmit the motion from thehead ll of the machine to the pallet 32.

In order to start the sewing machine by operating the usual startinglever 29 and to keep the latter depressed during the successivestitching operations, the following arrangement is provided. A crankedrod 36, 31 is fixed by its one end 31 to an upstanding plate on the baror finger 2, and its other end 36 may be guided in a bushing fixed inone of the end frames l2. The rod 36, 31 is carried above andtransversely of the bars or fingers. The starting lever 29 of the sewingmachine is provided with a dependent blade spring arm 38, provided withastop or nose 38a adapted to engage beneath the portion 36 of the redwhen the lever 29 is depressed by its end 29a and to be released when itreaches the portion 31. the starting lever 29, the nose 38a will engagebeneath the portion 36 of the rod and the machine will start stitching.The stitching then proceeds, due to the lever 29 remaining depressed,

and as soon as the last buttonhole cycle of the sewing machine to stitchthe last buttonhole of the series has been started, the nose 38a will'nolonger be engaged by the portion 33 but will be opposite the portion3'5, and thus be released, al-

lowing the lever 29 to move upwardly and stop the machine at thecompletion of that cycle.

In operation, the garment, for instance a vest 19 as shown in Fig. 1 ispositioned on the table He: of the sewing machine with its edge engagingwithin the stops formed by the clamps l1, IS, the lever 20 is thenoperated to clamp the vest at its edge. The carriage, by means of itshandle 22 is then slidden on the rods l0 until the bar 6 is engaged bythe pallet 32, when the position for the first buttonhole l9a will beimmediately beneath the needle bar of the machine. After the stops 24have been set to fix the spacing of buttonholes required to be sewn, thebars 5-I are extended by the handle 22 until the number of said bars,corresponding to the number of buttonholes, fill up the allotted space.The lever 27 is then operated to clamp the edge of the vest, and at thesame time lock the bars in position by means of the cam lever 25 and rod23. The machine is then set in operation by. momentarily depressing thestarting lever 29, the head thereupon moves in sewing down thefirst sideof the buttonhole, the arm llb engaging the stop 35b of the rod 35 asthe head approaches the limit of its movement in that direction at theeye end of It will thus be seen that on depressing the buttonhole,shifting the rod as thereby disengaging the tooth 320 from the tooth 3|and causing the tooth 32b to engage the tooth 30, see Fig. 4. The head[I then moves in sewing down the second side of the buttonhole, the arm||b engaging the stop 35a asthe head approaches the limit of itsmovement in this direction, thereby shifting the rod 35 at the end ofthe sewing operation. This movement releases the tooth 32b from thetooth 30, and allows the carriage under the influence of the spring 28to move until the tooth 3| of the second bar 5 is engaged by the tooth320 of the pawl 33. As the pawl 33 is capable of slight springcontrolled movement on its pivot 32a, after the tooth 320 is disengagedfrom the tooth 3| (say of the bar 4, see Fig. 4) it cannot re-engagetherewith, but is free to assume its normal position ready to engagewith the tooth 3| of the next bar 3. As soon as the first buttonhole |9ais completed, the motion of the head connected with they arm llb,operates the pallet 32 so as toallow the carriage, under the influenceof the spring 28 to move until the second bar 5 is engaged by the pallet32 and thus move the vest l9 into a new position for sewing the secondbuttonhole |9b.

In Fig. 1 the machine is shown at the start of a stitching operation,the downwardly turned tooth 3| of the bar or finger is engaged by thetooth 320 of the lever 33. As the machine reaches the eye end of thebuttonhole, the lever 32 is operated, causing the tooth 32b to engagewith the tooth 30 and the tooth 320 to be disengaged from the downwardlyturned tooth 3|. The tooth 32b engages with, the upturned tooth 30' ofthe bar or finger 4 (see Fig. 4) before the tooth 3| is released fromthe tooth 320. As soon as the tooth 320 is clear of the tooth 3|, andthe tooth 32b is fully engaged with the tooth 30, the lever 33 movesoutwardly on its pivot 32a under the influence of the spring 33a intothe position shown in Fig. 4. During this time there has been nomovement of the carriage. The stitching then proceeds, and when finishedthe rod 35 is again operated but this time in the opposite direction,causing the tooth 32b to disengage the tooth 30 and allow the carriageto move under the influence of the spring 28, so that the downwardlyturned tooth 3| of the next bar or finger 3 is engaged with the tooth32c thereby moving the lever 33 on its pivot against the action of thespring 33a and the cycle of operations is repeated. Each successivebuttonhole is then sewn in like manner until the last buttonhole iscompleted whereupon the machine is stopped.

The cranked portion of the rod 36, 31 is so arranged that the startinglever 29 is released during the shift of the carriage after sewing thebuttonhole I90, i. e., immediately after the hole I90 is completed, themachine stitching the last hole |9d with the starting lever 29 raised orin the oil position, the stop motion only coming into in which thestitch frame is reciprocated whilst the garment is held stationary, butit will be understood that by suitably modifying the mechanism, it maybe used in conjunction with sewing machines in which the stitch frame isnot traversed but the garment is moved.

I declare that what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination with an automatic buttonhole sewing machine of knowntype in which the work is held stationary, and the relative movement ofthe parts to sew about the buttonhole is produced by travel of thestitch frame including the sewing head of the machine, a gaugeconsisting of a plurality of indicating fingers held movably paralleland mechanism for equally spacing them. apart, means for carrying thegauge in a slidable manner transversely in relation to the stitch frameincluding the sewing head of the sewing machine, clamping means forholding the' edge of the garment to be operated upon beneath theneedlebar of the'machine, and locking'the gauge after adjustment, meansfor automatically sliding the gauge, and with it the garment after eachseparate stitching is completed, and means carried by the gaugeco-acting with the starting and stopping gear of the machine to keep themaallel by links pivoted together and to the fingers in the manner oflazy tongs, means for adjusting and limiting the spacing apart of thefingers, means for locking the fingers after adjustment, a pair ofparallelly arranged rods carried parallel with the front edge of themachine, and on which the gauge is adapted to slide, a spring forcOntrolling the sliding movement of the gauge, a pair of clamps adaptedto position and retain theedge of a garment between them and beneath theneedle bar of the machine, means for operating each clamp separately,mechanism operated from the I head of the machine to release and allowthe gauge under the influence of its spring to move after one stitchinghas been completed into a position for the next stitching, means forkeeping the starting lever of the machine in a depressed or startingposition during the separate stitchings and releasing it or stopping themachine after the whole of the stitchings have been completed.

3. A machine for spacing and forming a pluings in articles of clothingcomprising in combination with an automatic buttonhole sewing machine ofknown type in which the work is held stationary, and the relativemovement of the parts to sew about the buttonhole is produced by travelof the stitch frame including the sewing head of the machine, aplurality of indicating fingers, a series of links pivoted together inpairs at the centre of their lengths and at their ends, attaching theend pivotsto the fingers to allow the latrality of buttonholes and otherseparate stitch- K ter to move parallelly with each other, a pair offixed parallelly arranged guides carrying the fingers transversely in aslidable manner thereon, a frame carrying said guides in parallelrelation to the front edge of the sewing machine, a spring forcontrolling the sliding motion of the connected fingers, a handle formoving the fingers against the action of the spring, a pair-of stops andclamps carried by the fingers to position and clamp the edge of agarment beneath the needle bar of the sewing machine, means forseparately operating each clamp, a rod fixed at its one end to an endfinger and extending transversely above?! the fingers, adjustable stopson said rod adapted to co-act with a stop on one of the fingers to limitthe separation apart of the fingers, means for locking one of thefingers, other than the one to which the rod is fixed, to the rod toprevent relative movement of the fingers after adjustment, a springcontrolled catch adapted to engage the fingers and prevent theirmovement along their supporting guides; mechanism for intermittentlyreleasing said catch operable from the head of the sewing machine, meansco-operating with the starting lever of the sewing machine to cause saidstarting lever to keep the sewing machine in operation, and stop it oncompletion of the last stitching.

GEORGE JESSOP.

